Towards Healthier Indigenous Health Policies? Navigating the Labyrinth
Volume 2 | Issue 1 | Article 4 – Gabel, DeMaio, & Powell Towards healthier Indigenous health policies? Navigating the labyrinth for answers Volume 2 | Issue 1 and the efforts of the Canadian government to form collaborative arrangements between Article 4, June 2017 Indigenous communities, organisations and Chelsea A. Gabel government? What does an inclusive and McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada comprehensive Indigenous community- controlled health care system look like? The Peter DeMaio purpose of this article is to explore how McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada Indigenous people and community stakeholders in Canada understand terms such as self- Alicia Powell determination and health and draw conclusions McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada about collaborative efforts between the government and Indigenous communities to Abstract support community-controlled health care. It further explores participant narratives and This research is based on two years of describes their experiences, particularly, the community-based participatory research that strengths and weaknesses of community- draws on Indigenous understandings of health government health policy developments. policy in five First Nations in Ontario, Canada. While a number of policies have been put in place Keywords: Indigenous people, North America, to increase Indigenous control over community health and wellbeing, health care administration, health services, we argue that policies enacted to health policy/policy analysis, social promote Indigenous self-determination in health equality/inequality, self-determination, care have been counterproductive and qualitative research. detrimental to Indigenous health and wellbeing. Instead, we suggest that Indigenous health policy Acknowledgements. We would like to thank exists on a continuum and aim to balance the the five Indigenous communities, government need for including diverse Indigenous groups and non-government organisations for their with comprehensive control from program invaluable contributions to the research.
[Show full text]